Pumpkin of Doom
by Sapphowako
Summary: This is a short story set right before a book I am currently working on. It is in the point of view of Serena, a daughter of Athena, and recounts the story of the search for the Pumpkin of Doom, a magical artifact that has the power to control the gods.


"Oh, great," I said, as I sneaked around some boxes to a balcony.

I peered over it to see what was going on. I saw a sight that was very bad. Two people were huddling over something on a table, a man and a woman, and the man had a knife. I pulled out a bronze letter opener, my good luck charm, and hoped for the best.

The man stood over a pumpkin, a shining pumpkin, which seemed as if it was made of silver, but it looked like much more than just ordinary silver. It was polished so much that the pumpkin didn't just show someone's reflection, it showed images of the future, and the past. This pumpkin was so magical; I could sense its magical power from over on top of the balcony.

The man was talking to the women. The women seemed very familiar, I just couldn't tell where I knew her from all the way up in the balcony. Upon getting a closer look, I realized that she wasn't just a woman; she was a goddess, and a particularly deadly one, too. Her name was Khaos, the original goddess. She is the mother of Gaea, and that makes her my great grandmother, but she was in no way a pleasant old lady. She also was part snake from below the waist. Her snake body was a deep, crimson red, a color mostly associated with chaos and disorder to me and most of my friends. I realized that me, a weak daughter of Athena was found here, I was dead. As I turned to flee, I tripped on a box, and fell down to the first floor.

"Great, now I must fight my way out of here. HELP!" I yelled to my friends.

"They won't help you now," hissed Khaos, "they are… busssy."

I pulled out my letter opener, which turned into a kopis, and got prepared to fight the man. He glanced at me, and I noticed an intense, angry look in his eye. He turned back to the pumpkin, and raised his knife, about to slice the pumpkin. I pulled out my knife, bronze knife gleaming, and threw it toward the pumpkin. The man's knife was just about to slice the pumpkin, when an explosion blew the door in.

"Impossible," Khaos exclaimed, "They should have been killed!"

I smiled, "Never doubt them two; they are very powerful."

Khaos looked at me, and lunged, her snake tail grabbing my throat, attempting to choke me. I felt the life draining from me, when I woke up…

I woke up from the dream, and looked around, not knowing where I was. Slowly it dawned on me. That was the third night in a row in which I had that dream. Me and my friends were only a mile from the house in my dream, and I was going to die. I got out of my sleeping bag, and looked towards my friends. I went over in my head the events of yesterday.

I stepped out of my cabin, back at Camp, when two kids started running past, They were half-brothers, two sons of Poseidon, and some of the most powerful demigods alive.

They ran up to Chiron, and talked to him. After the talk, Chiron seemed worried. I went to breakfast, which was strangely silent.

"What's going on," I whispered to my friend Morgana, "Why isn't anyone speaking?"

"Chiron was about to give a speech, Serena," Morgana replied, "He mentioned something about a gourd."

"Calm down everyone," Chiron said, gaining the attention of everyone at the dining hall, "There is a grave emergency that needs to be addressed."

After this he turned to the son of Poseidon on his left, his name was Percy I believe.

"A very important plant has been stolen; it is a very magical plant, one known to most as the Pumpkin of Doom."

Billy continued for Percy, "This magical artifact has a very interesting and deadly power; it can grant the power to control the gods to whoever cuts it open. Khaos wants that power under her control, and she can get it."

Many in the dining pavilion gasped in shock, and some of the newer kids who knew a little about Khaos fainted.

Morgan raised her hand, "but Billy, I thought only mortals can use magical artifacts, so how can Khaos use the pumpkin?"

"Good question," replied Billy, "and the answer to that is she cannot, at least, not directly. She has gotten a hold of a mortal man, whom she has complete control over. That man is how Khaos will use the Pumpkin."

Even more people fainted.

I raised my hand.

"Yes, Serena, is it?" Billy asked.

"It is Serena," I replied, "and I believe I had a dream in which I went to get the pumpkin."

The entire conscious pavilion gasped.

"A quest is necessary, I believe," started Chiron, "and a very urgent quest it is, Serena, who will you take with you, remember, you are allowed two companions."

I thought long and hard about who to bring with me, neither me nor Morgana had been on a quest before, but I wanted an older, stronger demigod to come with us. Billy, Tyler, Nico, Matt, and Percy are some of the strongest demigods alive right now, but Nico is somewhere else right now, and Percy's girlfriend would kill me if he got hurt, so I didn't know who to pick when suddenly, out of the blue, Billy volunteered.

"I'll go," said Billy, "I've been searching for the hideout in which Khaos has kept the man, and I believe I found it. It is a couple miles from here. It should be no trouble getting there, the only trouble would be getting out of the hideout."

I looked towards Morgana, a girl who I considered my best friend, and who had helped me many times in my life.

"Will you be the third person on this quest?" I asked her.

"Is it going to be dangerous, and is there a possibility that we will all die?" asked Morgana.

"Yeah, probably," I replied.

"Then I'm in," Morgana said.

"Good, then that is three of us," I said, eyeing Billy's friend, Tyler, who I know was going to volunteer. If I had only let him come, things would have turned out much differently.

A yawn brought me back to the present.

"Ahh, good morning, Serena," Morgana said sleepily, "are you ready to go kick some monster butt?"

"Yeah, I guess," I replied, "but I am actually very scared."

I didn't want the quest to stop because I might die, so I did not tell Morgana about my dream.

Just then, a twig snapped.

"Billy," I yelled, "Is that you?"

"No need to yell," he said, still in his sleeping bag, "I'm getting up! Geez, you're worse than my parents."

A women with two snake tails instead of legs appeared. These monsters were often used in the armies of any of the various evil entities of Greek Mythology. A Scythian Dracaenae, if I remembered correctly.

"Monsters!" I yelled.

Billy jumped out of his sleeping bag, pulling out his silver sword and shield, and getting into a battle position. I pulled out a bronze letter opener, and willed it to transform into a kopis, a traditional Greek sword from pre-Roman times. Morgana pulled out a cutlass. Both swords were gifts from our mother, Athena, when we turned 13. We had already been in camp for a couple of years, and the camp was about to go to war against another enemy of Olympus, Kronos, so our mother gave us these weapons as gifts.

"Sssurrender now, or face the wrath of Khaosss," the lead dracaenae said.

There were five of them, and I knew we could take them all. Heck, Billy could take at least five at one time.

I slashed the nearest one, causing it to disintegrate, the way monsters normally do. Billy stabbed another one, blocking the sword of a third one with his shield. I threw a knife at the third one, causing it to disappear as well. Billy fell down, as I realized my mistake. The fourth one was killed by Morgana, who was then cut by a fifth one, who then turned to Billy. I looked at both of them for a brief moment, before realizing that Morgana was in more danger than Billy. I ran to Morgana, just as Billy jumped up 10 feet in the air, propelled by water from a nearby stream. I threw another knife at the dracaenae, killing it.

Billy landed near Morgana. He pulled out Nectar; a substance used by demigods for healing purposes, and splashed some on Morgana's wound. The wound started to disappear.

We regrouped and found the path leading to the house.

"Onward," I ordered, "We must get to the house soon; we don't want to be too late!"

We walked up to the house, stumbling upon a group of twenty dracaenae.

"Serena, go into the House, try and stop Khaos," Billy yelled, "Me and Morgana will hold them off."

I started to protest, then gave up, Billy and Morgana were already fighting the dracaenae. I walked towards the house and quietly opened the door. There was a flight of stairs to my left, I went up them, and found myself in a hallway, and one end was blocked by a bunch of boxes.

"Oh, great," I said, as I sneaked around the boxes to a balcony.

I peered over it to see what was going on. I saw a sight that was very bad. Two people were huddling over something on a table, a man and a woman, and the man had a knife. I pulled out a bronze letter opener, my good luck charm, and hoped for the best.

The man stood over a pumpkin, a shining pumpkin, which seemed as if it was made of silver, but it looked like much more than just ordinary silver. It was polished so much that the pumpkin didn't just show someone's reflection, it showed images of the future, and the past. This pumpkin was so magical; I could sense its magical power from over on top of the balcony.

The man was talking to the women. The women seemed very familiar, I just couldn't tell where I knew her from all the way up in the balcony. Upon getting a closer look, I realized that she wasn't just a woman; she was a goddess, and a particularly deadly one, too. Her name was Khaos, the original goddess. She is the mother of Gaea, and that makes her my great grandmother, but she was in no way a pleasant old lady. She also was part snake from below the waist. Her snake body was a deep, crimson red, a color mostly associated with chaos and disorder to me and most of my friends. I realized that me, a weak daughter of Athena was found here, I was dead. As I turned to flee, I tripped on a box, and fell down to the first floor.

"Great, now I must fight my way out of here. HELP!" I yelled to my friends.

"They won't help you now," hissed Khaos, "they are… busssy."

I pulled out my letter opener, which turned into a kopis, and got prepared to fight the man. He glanced at me, and I noticed an intense, angry look in his eye. He turned back to the pumpkin, and raised his knife, about to slice the pumpkin. I pulled out my knife, bronze knife gleaming, and threw it toward the pumpkin. The man's knife was just about to slice the pumpkin, when an explosion blew the door in.

"Impossible," Khaos exclaimed, "They should have been killed!"

I smiled, "Never doubt them two; they are very powerful."

Khaos looked at me, and lunged, her snake tail grabbing my throat, attempting to choke me. I felt the life draining from me, and then a silver sword cut off the tail that was choking me.

"Hey, didn't I warn you about the snakes?" said Billy, turning towards Khaos and charging.

Then, dracaenae came into the room, followed by Morgana, who cut down two of them, leaving a total of twelve dracaenae left. I threw my last knife at the nearest dracaenae, then jumping towards another one, slicing it.

There were ten left. Ten stupid snake women, a number that seems small, but it was big enough. They split into two equal groups, one coming at me, the others going towards Morgana. They wielded scimitars, and also had shields. I stole the shield from one of them, stabbing that one with my sword. I blocked the blow of another one, exchanging blows with the third and forth. The third dracaenae drew her sword up, and I used the opportunity to slash her chest. Right behind her was another one, who was wielding a spear. I turned around, blocking a sword with mine, and another sword with my shield. With my shield hand, I grabbed the spear, throwing it back at her.

Only two were left. I hit one with my shield, smashing her head. I turned to another one, and we exchanged a few blows before I killed her too. I looked toward Morgana, hoping to see her having beaten the monsters too. There was only one left, and Morgana had cuts all over her. I turned to help, but then something horrible happened. Morgana brought her cutlass up, a weapon that I told her many times was not a good idea, and started to bring it down to slash the last dracaenae. I stopped moving towards her, thinking she was going to win, when the dracaenae disarmed Morgana. I started to move towards her, realizing that I wasn't going to make it, but kept going anyways. When your best friends about to die, you do things like that. I had known Morgana for most of my life, and she was one of my best friends. The dracaenae brought her scimitar down in an unorthodox method, and lunged towards Morgana, piercing her skin, and going right through her heart, coming out the other side of her body. I screamed, and lunged at the dracaenae, cutting its head off. I turned to Morgana, but she was already dead.

"This can't be happening," I cried, "you are my best friend, you can't die, that never happens in the stories!"

I turned towards the pumpkin, which miraculously had not been cut at all. The man was dead, my knife in his stomach. The blast threw him into my knife's path. I looked at the pumpkin, then towards Billy. He was still alive, how, I don't know.

I moved towards the pumpkin, and lifted my sword.

"This is for you, Morgana," I said, as I brought my sword down, cleaving the pumpkin in half. The pumpkin disappeared into glowing orbs, about the size of my fist. They travelled up my sword, to my arm, covering my body in a bluish aura.

This pumpkin had the power to control the gods, which included Khaos. I turned toward Khaos.

"LEAVE," I yelled, "And don't ever return here!"

She looked at me, a look of horror on her face. As she started to glow, I looked away, and she disappeared.

"You okay," Billy said, "You look terrible,"

"You too," I said, as he had multiple marks all over his body.

"Haha, that was nothin'," he said, but I could tell otherwise, "Let's go back to Camp, Chiron will have to know what happened," He said.

"I guess," I said, still crying, as he put is arm around me, to comfort me over Morgana's death, and we left the house, going back towards Camp.


End file.
